Ready to Hunt Elephant

[CAustin]

Good luck on your hunt CAustin.im off on my first Ele hunt in March So this is a great thread to hear from those with experience

Thanks Environ I am hoping to learn a lot before I book a hunt. Folks on this forum are always helpful and very knowledge .

 

[ActionBob]

That is correct, the nerve is pulled before weighing the tusk. Mine had relatively short nerves so the ivory weighed up nicely. If you pull them out fresh enough (see below) either you or your PH should slice them and feel for little ivory balls inside the roots. I got a very tiny one like a bb, but supposedly they can be almost like pearls. You might want to save those if the are there. Might be a little secret you may or not be told about.

And the extra meat and gunk cleaned off... I don't really know, but if you do pay by the pound, I would be sure they are clean and dry. It is a tremendous amount of work to chop out tusks and a need to be careful but you will still get a few nicks from the ax/machete. So alternatively they will bury the head in sand and rot them out. Stinky rotten mess but easier and no nicks..... In my case, I was not going to see those tusks for a long time and maybe never again! So no question I wanted them chopped out and to hold and photo them! I suppose if you had a week left before leaving after you shoot your bull... You could wait to rot them out. I shot mine on day 9 of 12 so no time left.

Now that we talked about rotting..... Yes we ate the meat. But the cook took it and cut it into kabobs. Then marinated it in the ice box (fridge) for 2 days before he would cook it for us. Ann and I both thought it was good! The PH refused to eat it and told us we would be chewing it for a week! The sinewy part I thought was mostly in-edible... Or you need some damned good teeth! But I bit the good parts off around that and liked it.

Yes the villagers had a fire going and were back and forth cooking globs of meat on fresh cut sticks. It was not real technical, mostly charred to hell. One old guy with almost no teeth must have been back and forth between the elephant and the fire 6 times... I took pictures of him patting his belly with a big toothless grin but cannot find them..... The kid in the blue shirt and red pants is trotting off to the fire.

 

[CAustin]

Action Bob interesting point about ivory balls in the root! Never knew such a thing existed., I will indeed look for and ask the PH to assure I get them!
Did the locals eat the root?

 

[CAustin]

Royal127 and Gizmo,
Maybe both of you should go with me. I like that you would tote my gun for me Royal but that trigger pulling part is just more than kind. Too kind!

 

[ActionBob]

Action Bob interesting point about ivory balls in the root! Never knew such a thing existed., I will indeed look for and ask the PH to assure I get them!
Did the locals eat the root?

The balls may or may not be there... But worth checking.

No they did not eat the root. The guy holding it peeled all the meat off the head and dried it for his family... Very tough meat but he had 3 wheel barrows full after it was dried. The local tradition was to give the regional chief the trunk and beings I could not save the skin for mounting any ways.. He got it skin on in one big chunk, late in the day. The elephant was shot about 5 or 5:30 AM... It was well over 100 degrees F mid day. I was told he would eat it.

Other than the stomach contents, skin, and the spine, and about half the other bones (they took most of the ribs and half the leg bones).. .The only other thing they did not take to eat was the penis..... I think they rinsed out the asshole and someone took that to eat as well!
P.S.
If this is getting to graphic, Brickburn may need to censure me.

 

[CAustin]

I noticed plastic bags of what is basically animal guts sitting out by roads for sale over in South Africa! My PH told me that even without ice it would sell by sun down. My tracker/skinner Jacobe took home three coolers of livers, hearts, tongues and guts that he would feed his family and sell some to neighbors. Not much goes to waste. Keep the pointers coming as I'm taking notes.

 

[BRICKBURN]

................

If this is getting to graphic, Brickburn may need to censure me.

View attachment 36758

This is just a reality of the remains of the processing.

 

[Big5]

. . . . Did you eat any of the meat and how was it?

When I killed mine quite a number of years ago the butchering did not begin until the local village chief arrived. The trunk was then cut off and ceremonially presented to him.

While watching the lengthy butchering process we ate quite a fair amount of the meat. We cut it into cubes and skewered it onto sticks to be roasted over an open fire. With a little salt and pepper I found it to be quite good.

Good hunting to you!

 

[CAustin]

Big5 I shall take some salt and pepper packets with me!

 

[Royal27]

The interesting meal I heard about in Zim was a breakfast dish.

First, shoot an elephant.

Then, cut trunk into steak thickness. Cook to desired wellness and towards the end place an egg in each nostril opening and poach.

Elephant trunk steak and poached eggs!

 

[ROCKET]

Charly.....I am so glad to find this post about this news......I have read many times about your great desires to hunt an Ele.......and let me tell you.........you are right......in my opinion the biggest thing you can to aspire in your hunting life as Sportmman, is achieve to put an Elefante down, no doubt.
I have no experience at all in this matter and probable I will never have, but considering the amount of people with enough experiencie here at the site, and the amount of information you can find and receive allready here from the AH guys......I can only say.....nothing can go wrong with this......!!!!!

I wish the best for you in your Elephant hunt, dream next to come true......walking rigth to the summit in a hunter life......do it, enjoy it, and savor it for the rest of your life.....tell your grandchildren how you got an a great Elefante......!!!!!

I will be wanting for the hunting report.......will be a great one no doubt....!!!!!

My best wish of a great hunt for you.....!!!!

 

[ActionBob]

I just noticed the kid sitting under the bush with yellow sleeves on the right side of that picture of all the villagers, he has a piece of cooked meat on a stick and the other kid in coming in for a piece.

The next day, as we drove though the village we were the very popular! Second only to the outhouses

 

[ScottG]

Congrats, good luck and have the time of your life.

 

[Big5]

Big5 I shall take some salt and pepper packets with me!

Not a bad idea, but you may not need to. If your hunt goes anything like mine you will likely be laying down a lot of shoe leather each day and spending time fly camping rather returning to a main camp every day. Consequently we always had some basic cooking supplies and gear with us in the hunting vehicle.

I can no longer remember who hoofed it back to get the vehicle with that salt and pepper but I'm sure glad they did. A few beers and the salt and pepper really made for extra tasty kabobs on a stick while being entertained by the butchering action.

 

[Big5]

. . . . thinking back to the butchering action I still find it a little surprising that everyone came away with all their body parts, including fingers, still attached.

 

[ActionBob]

Yea elephant hunting is an adventure! It is work! It is exciting! It is boring. It is treacherous. It is exhausting. It is fascinating. It is wonderful! It can be a very moving experience like you may never have had. It is magnificent!!!! It an experience of a lifetime! It is NOT relaxing.

We woke up at 3:30 AM and often got to bed at 10:30 PM. Some days we got a nap mid day, sometimes not. Get in shape physically as best you can, but for sure prepare yourself mentally.... Especially if you do a hunt in the wilds with roads (not really roads, trails might be generous) few and far between. I can handle the hours and the steady work, the half running and big hills kill me!

Have very comfortable but not real heavy walking boots/shoes of top quality and fully broken in... Put a good 100 miles on them before you go. Take at least two pair if not 3... Sometimes rotating shoes if you get a blister started can move the rub spot to another location and give some relief. Take blister kits and buy the best socks you can get, spend $20 a pair on socks and get liners as well. May be a little embarrassing to mention but to cover "everything" good supportive underwear allowing lots of walking without chaffing. Might sound funny but I'm serious, proper exercising equipment... I went in to a high end sporting goods store, swallowed hard when the good looking young lady asked what I needed help finding... Turned red and explained exactly what I needed.... She was professional and got me very good "equipment".

When they talk about hunting elephant with your feet, they are serious!

 

[Velo Dog]

CAustin,

I will live vicariously through your posts on this.
As ActionBob mentioned, your .416 should do the trick.
One of my friends took an exportable bull from South Africa in 2014 with his Model 70 in .416 Remington / 400 gr monolithic solid, (as well as a hippo on land with this load) and said he'd merrily use it again for those.
Are you planning to use the scope for this specific animal?
On the other hand, are you considering getting a double rifle for this hunt?
If my knee continues to heal up properly (had surgery on it last summer), I may be able to hunt elephant in another year or so but, it's been slow going.
Meanwhile, I will enjoy reading about your planned hunt.

Best regards,
Velo Dog.

 

[CAustin]

VeloDog I do plan to use the Ruger 416 Guide Gun with the Luepold VX 6 scope attached. With 0 magnification you have a 120' wide field of view that makes for quick sighting of the target.
I would love to have a double but I bought this Ruger with the big five in mind. It shoots a Hornady DGS 400 grain round at 2400 ft per second so I'm thinking it will get the job done. I can chamber the second round quickly with the short bolt action.
Honestly my biggest concern is judging the angle to hit the brain on a frontal shot. A side brain shot is what I would hope for, but will follow the instructions of the PH. When you look at the shot placement shots on this site it can be a little difficult to see where the round has to end up.

 

[ActionBob]

. . . . thinking back to the butchering action I still find it a little surprising that everyone came away with all their body parts, including fingers, still attached.

It can be a may lay! We were told a story about how someone was inside the body cavity when a large knife came through from the outside and stabbed him.... And they pulled him out, laid him aside and carried on hacking meat off the elephant. Rumor is the guy died.

I have no idea if it is true or not but I do see how it could be. Ben the government guy did a decent job of controlling the process, at least to keep it somewhat in check.... But he was from the same village. He was certainly a popular and powerful man in the village that day.... And the driver and skinner managed to find a few young female "groupies". Our driver was very selective who got a ride in the truck back and forth and who had to walk or ride donkey carts.

Harvesting an elephant in a CAMPFIRE Unit is definitely a "large" human experience! There are other areas where it is almost more of a commercial process with tractors and trailers picking up the carcass and hauling it to a processing area. We had to chop and cut (the chainsaw broke down) a road around the carcass to use the hunting truck to winch it over onto the other side.

Some areas we hunted could have required a full day just making a trail to get to the critter.

 

[Big5]

ActionBob . . . Yours is an interesting account yet somewhat different that what occurred with mine. I killed my bull in a hilly area and all the meat was carried out in small portions in woven baskets on the heads of villagers. It seemed like a back and forth endless line of worker ants that lasted for hours. All the butchering was done with hand tools (knives, machetes and axes) no chainsaws or other power tools were used.

It was also interesting to see them roll the carcass. That was done with the sheer might of manpower using several tree limbs as levers against large rocks or boulders placed alongside the carcass. It was a long struggle but they finally did roll the carcass over to begin butchering again.